days with both sides staying mum on the details. this afternoon president obama's fiscal photo-op off the day takes him to the suburban home of a middle class families in virginia, one of the thousands who responded to the white house's hash tag campaign, all of this happen being as a new poll comes out showing that when it comes to who americans trust more on the fiscal crisis, it's a democratic blowout. 56% say they trust the president and the democrats to make a good faith effort to cooperate with republicans. 51% say republicans won't act in good faith. and a whopping 65% support higher taxes on households making more than $250,000 a year. perhaps knowing this, the administration is talking with a little more political swagger. treasury secretary tim geithner drawing another hard line in the sand in this interview with cnbc. >> when it comes to raising taxes on the wealthy, those making more than $250,000, if republicans do not agree to

that, is the administration prepared to go over the fiscal cliff? >> absolutely. again, there's no prospect to an agreement that doesn't involve those rates going up on the top 2% of the wealthiest. >> and this ongoing political game of chicken is something one of the chairmen of the debt commission simply calls madness. >> when you have leaders of parties and people from the administration saying i think it will be to the advantage of the democrats to go off the cliff or i think it will be advantage to the republicans to go off the cliff or the president to go off the cliff, that's like betting your country. there's stupidity involved in that. >> willing to go over the cliff, i guess they are but they also don't believe republicans are going to go over the cliff. >> he can win politically but the costs, doesn't you agree, would be tremendous not only to him but to the economy and to our country. >> and we want to bring in and say good morning to congresswoman diane black, a republican from tennessee, a member of the house budget and

ways and means committee. congresswoman, is great to have you with me right now. as we speak, house minority leader nancy pelosi is giving her briefing this morning. weep put that up for everybody to see. when we talk about where we are in the staging of all of this, all the drama, the back and forth, the clock ticking, americans truly watching this, you think that the house would be in session today but you all closed up house day early, streamed out yesterday in a walkout. what gives? how do you explain this to the american people when they expect you should be at work trying to resolve this? >> i'm not sure you would call it a walkout. we're waiting for the president to act. we have laid something on the table and we continue to be stalemated by the president and his administration. i am so disappointed that the treasury, geithner, said yesterday they're willing to go off the fiscal cliff and they're notle to negotiate and put something on the table. we've put a good faith effort on the table and you know what, the

president is the leatheaet lead. i expect him to be in washington rather than out campaigning. the campaigning is over. it's time to sit at the table with the leaders and that's what it's going to take. i'm very disappointing that's not happening. >> i want to play something that house speaker boehner had to say yesterday. >> the revenues we're putting on the table are going to come from guess who? the rich. now, there are ways to limb the deduction, close loopholes and have the same people pay more of their money to the federal government without raising tax rates. >> congresswoman, the "new york times" reporting today that boehner is enjoying the broadest support he has seen in two years but as you know, a lot of conservatives are very angry over his giving any ground on revenue. is the speaker's leadership still strong in your estimation? >> i think it is. and i know that it's a very tough position for our leader to be in. and especially tough when he cannot get the president to come to the table and in addition to that, we have the administration

that keeps moving the goalpost. 2010 this very president said this is not the time when the economy is so bad to raise taxes on anyone yet now we're having him say he wants to raise taxes on small business own that's are going to affect about 700,000 jobs. is that really what we need to do in an economy where we have 23 million americans that are struggling for unemployment? this is the reason why we have to hold strong on this. the other this evening ng is we hear from the president on the other side of the coin. we have a spending problem in washington. unless we get serious about talking about that, we'll never solve this debt crisis and fiscal issue. >> congresswoman, i quoted the enough quinnipiac poll that's out, over 65% of americans degree that taxes need to be higher on those making over 250,000 a year. i know you like to say these are small business owners, these are the people that are going to give jobs to the american people, sure. but when we look at this as a whole and the mandate that was given as a collective voice with

the president's reelection and he ran on the fact that he was going to raise taxes and now this polling supports the fact that americans want to see taxes raised, how can you stand there within the halls of congress and say that's not something that you're willing to do? >> i think that's a really good question but here is my question. if i say i want my neighbor to pay more than what i pay, i don't care what level you're at, you'll always have that happen. i think what many of the american people are not aware of and that is how it is going to directly impact them and that is their jobs. these are the job creators. if the job creators don't have the money to put back into their company -- >> how can you have it both ways? if you say people are out of work and they're unemployed and you say these are the job creators, these are the same bush tax cuts that have been in place throughout the last ten years. so how can you say that this is something that needs to stay in place if we're in such a bad place yet you don't want to look at the idea of knowing that we

need to raise revenue and do take an impact on our spending so we can balance the sheet of what the american book looks like. >> exactly. and balance is the word. and that's the thing that we're not talking about. we're talking about this raising taxes on that top 2%, which are the job creators, which will bring in exactly 8.5 days worth of revenue. how in the world can you continue to just stay on that topic and not turn to the other side and say our spending is the problem? we cannot raise taxes enough to take care of $1 trillion worth of deficit spending every single year. so let's get off of this and get on to the other side and start talking about what we have to do to cut our spending, to reform those entitlement programs that are the debt drivers and then do pro-growth tax reform that will stimulate the economy, get the money coming in. it's the best way to get money coming in and that gives everybody a job and helps to take care of the fiscal problem and balanced is what we need.

>> congresswoman diane black, thank you for joining me this morning. i appreciate your time. >> thank you. >> i want to bring in our political power panel. political reporter, karen tumult, karen finney and robert trainam. karen, since i know you the best, i'm going to call you k-fin as not to confuse everyone. it seems the taxes are going to go up on the wealthy. the question is whether or not it's through the tax increases or closing the loopholes and the deductions. so do you think that we are closer to a deal today than yesterday if. >> i do. in that now they're putting -- there's no pressure to put all the elements of the deal on the table. karen and robert have been to a few of these rodeos as well the only way you great deal in washington is to be right up gangs deadline and we're not

quite there yet and also to have all the moving parts of the deal on the table at the same time. >> so procrastination rules the day then. we just got this breaking news that senator jim demint is going to leave the senate in january to become the president of the heritage foundation. demint had been holding boehner's feet to the fire on these tax cuts. what's your reaction to that and this on the heels of reports that boehner is getting strong backing in the house? >> let me start with senator demint. he always has seen himself as a movement conservative. i think what he thinks is he can make a much more significant and much more impactful difference outside leading this movement, ala at the heritage foundation. the heritage foundation has always been an incubator of ideas. moving on to speaker boehner, this is a good thing that he has his caucus behind him.

i remind you and the audience that has not always been the case. a lot of tea party folks and other folks have never trusted speaker boehner but they've given him a lot of leeway given the fact they're united by this overall principle that they should not raise taxes on small business owners. >> shouldn't it mean that you should stick out your term? he's only two years in. he doesn't want to make a career out it have but why not stick around until you're done? >> i don't disagree with you. i find it disingenuous to your constituents that you did not serve out your term. i would have advised him to stay in his position but that isn't my decision. >> you have tim geithner and others saying they're ready to go over the cliff, the curve, the bump, whatever it is. does the president risk losing public support if he keeps playing this political game of dare/double dare? >> no, i don't think it is.

the president has said here is what i'm offering. listening to those clips of john boehner and listening to the congresswoman, all of those talking points sound very familiar. they sound a lot like the arguments that mitt romney was making during the campaign that americans roundly rejected. for them to cling to that rhetoric doesn't make sense. they've had time to make their case and they're losing american people. the president has been very firm from the beginning, he's been very consistent across the board with members of congress, the business community, progressive leaders, you name it, all the different folks he's brought in to talk about this, he's been very consistent. he's not playing a game and i think you got a taste of that yesterday in his remarks to the business roundtable. he's not kidding. he's put some serious things on the table, he's put his plans out there, it's balanced, there's spending, he's willing to make a deal but he is not willing to have any kind of conversation that does not include raising rates and he's unwilling to put raising the debt ceiling in as part of this

package and i think he's not going to move from that. >> let's look at the examination that's going into the strategy coming from the white house. rich lowrie calls the president's strategy operation humiliation with stage one being to dispatch guyer in to the hill with a laughable offer, stage two, watching republicans squirm, squabble and panic. since the polls show that the public will blame the republicans, the president and the media will paint boehner and company as, quote, hideous extremists who hate the middle class. is this what we're watching play out right now? >> what the white house learned during the first term is that there are some things that work for obama and some things that don't. sitting down at a table with john boehner as essentially equals did not turn out as well as they might have hoped with the debt ceiling talks in 2011. but what did work was that winter when the president went to the country and argued for extending the payroll tax holiday and developed pressure outside of washington, he was a lot more successful. so they have two goals here.

one is to keep the pressure coming from outside the beltway and the second is to make sure that this is not a negotiation between the president and boehner, that they want the president essentially floating above this. >> robert, when we talk and i know you had a chance to hear what congresswoman black will to say about trying to find the right balance here, while a majority of americans, say they go completely support raising taxes on wealthier americans, there is also a majority support that says we don't want to see earned benefits messed with, we don't want to see the medicare eligibility age raised, we don't want to see these entitlements cut with medicare cuts. when we hear that, is that basically not getting in the ears of what john boehner's caucus has in front of them right now? they're just not paying attention to those facts on the table? >> you're exactly right. it's not reality. the simple math doesn't add up. i use the analogy, it's like

going tos an fast food chain and, there's calories involved in that, you might gain a little bit of weight. >> not if nobody sees you eat it. >> at the end of the day you know what you ate and you're going to gain the weight. the fact of the matter is it's simple arithmetic here. when you take a look at entitlement reform that, is the real driver here to bring down our deficit and to bring fiscal sanity back to washington, d.c. as it relates to medicare, as it relates to social security. that's the real conversation that we as the american people need to have around our kitchen tables. >> an interesting note to point out amid this debt crisis going on, new jersey governor chris christie is at the white house asking for more aid in the aftermath of hurricane sandy. the president is going to ask congress for $50 billion. new jersey and new york will no doubt want a big slice of that but disaster relief is being held hostage by the fiscal cliff. how much pressure does this additional pressure put on republicans, seeing chris christie show up at the white house knowing that he needs

money for his hard-hit state? >> it's a tremendous amount of pressure. part of what the strategy of think of what we're see hearing is the republicans are becoming increasingly isolated. you think about the discharge position. essentially even if they don't sign on to it, the point is they're going to own this mess. they're the ones who are seen to be, as the public suggests, not willing to make a deal. it is not unreasonable. we've all seen those horrifying images from the devastation of hurricane sandy. it's not unreasonable the governor of the state of new jersey would come and say i need help. americans are going to see that. they see the republicans becoming increasingly sort of isolated and, again, it becomes this question of why are you holding the rest of us hostage for the top 2%? so the problem for the republicans is they don't have a lot of good options at this point to get themselves out of this corner. >> our power panel, my thanks to all three of you. i really appreciate your time.

>> the fiscal cliff concession. are republicans getting redity wave the white flag of surrender? based on what you know, what do you think? plus why hamid karzai blames the u.s. for damage in that war torn country in an exclusive interview with nbc news. [ man ] ring ring... progresso this reduced sodium soup says it may help lower cholesterol, how does it work? you just have to eat it as part of your heart healthy diet. step 1. eat the soup. all those veggies and beans, that's what may help lower your cholesterol and -- well that's easy [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup. now's a good time to think about your options. are you looking for a plan that really meets your needs? and your budget?

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okay. welcome back, everybody. with 26 days to go until the country falls over the fiscal cliff, are we seeing some shift in the gop opposition to the president's plan? the president spoke with house speaker john boehner by phone yesterday. it was their first conversation in a week but neither side would characterize that conversation. they agreed not to talk about it publicly.

there is this, though, on the front page of today's "washington post." many gop centrists and some conservatives are calling on house speaker john boehner to concede on rates now while he still has leverage and shows concern. ed, as we dive in on this post article, it goes down to points out the republicans do want something in return for this. they want to have some wins in this fight. perception is reality in washington, d.c. and across the land. so if they can give something that looks like, okay, we got a couple things out of this. but that's really not going to be the case when we look at the whole big picture, unless they do that two step, which is get the 98% out of the way and maybe fight over the next eight weeks before the debt ceiling debate. >> well, this is where i think the white house needs to continue to put the pressure on boehner, saying that we're prepared to go over the cliff. keep in mind there's no mortal sin committed here if we do go over the cliff because this is

an expiration of bush tax policy passed if 2001 and 2003. the president is willing to accept 98% of bush tax policy just to get a deal, okay. if we go over the cliff, it clears the slate and gives the obama team an opportunity to come back and really focus in on things better for the middle class. boehner knows this. this is why boehner is now coming to the table saying, all right, we can't do the cliff thing, we'll get the political hit for it and we'll also be in a bad negotiating position. but he has to identify where the money's coming from. and it's got to be rates. i get a sense in washington that the democrats have drawn the line in the sand on rates. if you can't get rates, you can't get anything else. boehner's going to come out and identify a bunch of deductions. that's not going to be enough. you got to go the rates. once you do the rates, everything else might fall in place because do i think the white house will negotiate. >> i want to go over the stakes of all of this just for the average american family, if we do go over the cliff, about 90%

of households would end up paying almost $3,500 more in taxes and one in five action pai -- taxpayers would have to pay the alternative minimum tax, which would mean an increase of $3,700 more of what you already know and those on unemployment it would drop from 99 weeks to 26 weeks. they say they're willing to do this. is this the fight that the obama administration really wants to take up freshly inaugurated, freshly into its new term to try to map out big, bold leadership instead of digging these trenches down the line that are going to have pitfalls and stakes all buried in it? >> i come from the school of thought that this country has overcome a lot more than just a few extra dollars. i do believe that this economy will continue to thrive, this economy will continue to move forward. i don't believe that we're going to go into a huge, deep recession again if these bush tax cuts expire. i do believe that you can

strengthen the economy if you let everything go off the cliff and come back and put in front of the american people and do a better job for the economy. there's up side either way you go. the president has got boehner in an untenable position. he doesn't have very many avenues to a victory right now but he's got a good escape, thomas. all john boehner has to do to exit out of this quickly is to say he won the election, we didn't, the american people in every survey say this is where we're going to go, we're going to go along with the wishes of the american people and the republicans would get goodwill for doing that. they have to get out of this ideological headrow that they're stuck in and do something for the company. >> the polls give them plausible acceptability of this plan of trying to move forward and, as you say, with the will of the american people. real quickly, though, the jim demint announcement this morning. surprised by that that he's going to be leaving? >> not really. he is one vote in the senate.

demint is a staunch conservative. he is pretty well connected to business because that was his culture before he came into the senate. fact is is that he may be able to do more for the conservative movement in this country as head of the heritage foundation than he would be what he's doing in the senate. he was the lead dog about going after obama care. well, that didn't work. there was no waterloo. he is somewhat scarred national live now as far as being legislatively inept because he can't work with anybody over on the left or in the center. he is so ideologically bent, i think the heritage foundation is going to be a good home for him and could be a good come back for conservatives because they're in disarray right now. >> you can watch "the ed show" every night at 8:00 p.m. the front page of "the huffington post," "tax me,

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it follows a night of fierce street battles between protesters and supporters of president morsi that left several dead and hundreds injured. the turmoil erupted after president morsi granted himself a decrease granting himself absolute power. hillary clinton hillary clinton is holding surprise talks from russia's prime minister, amid reports president bashar al assad is considering using chemical weapons against his own people. >> afghan president hamid karzai sharply criticizes the united states in an interview with nbc news. he partly blames the u.s. for the instability in his country. >> part of the insecurity comes from the structures that nato and america created in

afghanistan. the private security firms, the contractors that they promoted at the cost of afghan people and the way they behaved with the afghan people and the anger that has caused in the afghan people and the resulting insecurity. >> so would you say you believe that some of these would be intentional insecurity brought by nato and the united states? >> it is a very strong perception that some of that insecurity is intentional, yes. >> president karzai also accuses the u.s. of history lating the strategic partnership agreement the country signed last spring and said afghanistan will not sign any new agreements until the u.s. respects afghan sovereignty. >> all right. we're talking a bull or a bear market. wa wall street is saying about the fiscal cliff. plus kate out of the hospital but is she out of the woods.

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welcome back, everybody, to msnbc. we're showing you live pictures from the white house briefing room. jay carney expected to give a briefing in a couple of minutes. he'll no doubt be peppered with questions about the fiscal cliff, as long as with delicate issues about the middle east. otherwise, the war of words continuing today with the leaders of the senate. >> it's apparent how this will end. the only question is when will it end. how long will speaker boehner make middle class families wait for relief? >> for months the president's been saying all he wants is to raise taxes on the top 2% so he can tackle the debt and the deficit. however, yesterday, he finally revealed that's not really his true intent. by demanding the power to raise

the debt limit whenever he wants by as much as he wants, he showed what he's really after is assuming unprecedented power to spend taxpayer dollars without any limit at all. >> even as the fiscal cliff negotiations drag on in washington, wall street seems to be basically unphased. the dow jones has slipped only about 200 points since the election. why isn't wall street more on edge itself? william cohen is the author of "money and power, hold goldman sachs came to rule the world." the labor department came out with the applications for unemployment aid saying it fell sharply for the last week and stocks basically opened flat this morning as we've seen. some of that has to do more with europe than it does with washington. but what is your reasoning for why wall street hasn't displayed more of an impact from this fiscal cliff nonsense? >> thomas, what wall street

hates most of all is uncertainty and it's counterintuitive, there's actually plenty of certainty now. what's going to be certain is taxes are going up. either we go off the cliff or the curb and then taxes rise for everybody and then maybe they get repealed for the middle class and others or we reach a deal and taxes go up for the wealthiest 2% and everybody else breathes a sigh of relief. there's some $2 trillion in cash sitting on the balance sheets of corporate america waiting to be put to work. the reason it hasn't been put to work is because of uncertainty. taxes are going to go up, the deficit is going to be reduced, some of that money is going to be released. just like ed schultz said, this is all very good news for the american economy. >> so basically the uncertainty is what's providing the certainty moving forward because people across the country will look at this and the hand wringing that's taking place in washington, d.c. back and forth. the framework that could come out of this could mean a much

better booming economy? >> i think so. what's been holding back the 2d trillion on the sidelines is corporate ceos didn't know for a long time what was going to happen in washington. now we know. president obama has been reelected, taxes are going to go up one way or another, are they going to go up for everybody or just for the wealthy and then we can get the american economy rolling again. i think the stock market is very smart about this. it realizes that all this is much adue about nothing, taxes are going to go up. if they reach adeal and that falls apart that, could send the stock market reeling, like it did in 2008 when everybody thought congress was going to do the t.a.r.p. bailout and didn't and then they came back and did it. >> we had the business roundtable yesterday where the boeing ceo in the introduction to the president said there's not a lot of wall flowers in this room. the president knew the crowd he was meeting with and talking to and the president saying i passionately rooting for all of your successes. >> on the one hand we all know

that wall street supported mitt romney because he was one of them. on the other hand, this is exactly what the president should be doing, meeting with these business leaders, mending fences. now, a lot of those business leaders i'm told yesterday said to him stop talking to husband, get and start twisting some arms in congress and get a deal done. it's all good. we should be talking to each other. the american people rely on the business leaders to create the jobs so that they can have a better lifestyle so you don't want wall street and washington being at each other's throats. i think this is a very positive sign. >> william cohen, author of "money and power and how goldman sachs came to rule the world." >> newly expectant mom kate middleton is back resting in buckingham palace. and her royal father-in-law couldn't be happier about it. >> it's very nice to be a grandfather at my age and so that's splendid.

>> the duchess of cambridge left the hospital this morning with her husband, prince william, after four days of treatment for severe morning sickness. that hospital is dealing with the fallout of an embarrassing prank call that almost got through to her room. >> good morning, how may i help you? >> hello, i'm just after my granddaughter kate. i want to see how her little tummy bug is going. >> mummy, mummy -- >> she's getting some fluids to rehydrate her. >> so when is a good time to come and visit her? because i'm the queen so i need a lift down there. >> michelle, let's start with the duchess's condition and how she's doing, at least what we know so far. >> we don't know that many details other than unfortunately what was revealed in that prank phone call but it was nice to hear from kate herself today. she actually responded to the press when people yelled out

questions to her. she said she's doing much better thank you. and you could see it in her face. the big smile. the two of them as well as the palace, as much as they've tried to maintain their privacy, i mean who wouldn't want privacy during this obviously, have been very gracious to the press. the palace has released a number of statements and both william and kate have sort of given indications even if it's just in their expression on how they're feeling and how they're doing. thomas? >> again, a lot of well wishers around the globe want to see nothing but the best for them. michel michelle, thank you very much. i appreciate it. >> how changing demographics is changing the gop strategy. and almost a near unanimous vote in the senate to stop the lunacy. ♪ does that make me crazy, does that make me crazy ♪ fifteen bucks on rollback. wow! that's a savings of over 29 bucks!

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challenge for every movement in american politics is to apply your principles that as a conservative i believe are tested and proved by time and history, applying those principles to the 2 1s century. we applied them to the 20th century but now we have to apply them to the 21st century. >> senator marco rubio making a rather bold state about his party. we saw the republicans' party inability to get with the program, with newt gingrich calling obama a food stam many president, mitt romney using words like "self-deportation," it was part of the southern strategy to woo white voters. but it back fired on them big time. the nation's first black president finished more strongly than any other nominee in decades, und decades. joining me is the maker of the movie "runaway slave."

reverend brian, you have been critical of the democratic party. in an interview with the "blaze" you blame them for anti-republican sentiment. you say it's not that they're turned off to it, it's that they've saturated black minds that the word republican and conservative are words they have been taught to fear. it has been the democrats that have stood in the way of progress. sir, given the results of this past election, do you think that 93% of african-americans voted against their own interests? >> yes, indeed i do. in fact, there is a culture of dependency that has been groomed by the democrat party over a period of 50 years. a distortion of history even over that 50 year period of time. many black people have forgotten that it was democrats who stood in the doorway of the university of alabama to block black students from going there.

it was democrats who eisenhower had to send the national guard out to arkansas in order that the little rock nine could go to school in little rock. and the history of black people in this country, even the political history, those who were first elected to congress and to senate were all republicans. and the first democrat elected to the senate in the united states was carol moseley-braun and the second one was barack obama. the history of the republican party has always been that of freedom for all people and that's what we try to convey in our movie and we are very successfully doing that, "the runaway slave." that's the message. >> reverend, excuse me one second. >> mayor, there's been a lot of talk about how the hispanic vote has helped the president win votes like florida and nevada. but what's been less talked about is how the

african-american vote gave the president higher totals in states like georgia as well as mississippi. when you hear what the reverend has to say in regard to the democratic party modern day, do you agree with what he's saying? >> if this weren't such a serious topic, his comments would be laughable. the president won a minority groups across the boar, not on latinos but asians. but he did it because all of these people are very smart and they understood who had their interests at heart and who didn't. what we know from the reverend's comments and other people's comments such as john boehner and other republican leaders is that the republicans are going to continue to practice the politics of subtraction. they offend women. they offend latinos by saying self-deport. they don't respect reproductive

and health care choices of women. the list goes on and on. i'm satisfied as a democrat because it means they're going to continue to lose. they've lost florida. they will not get it back. they've lot virginia. they will not get it back. the only state they won is north carolina and they barely eked that out by 2 points. the president performed at record levels across the south for a democrat and the democratic party is going to continue to drive from virginia through north carolina through georgia and maintain florida. so what all of these folks are saying shows that they don't get it. so we'll just continue to beat them. >> gentlemen, i want to play for you what j.c. watts, former republican congressman, said to me yesterday on the lack of diversity that is represented right now in the republican party. >> i think the diversity and inclusion in outreach, i think it begins at the grass roots level. we have lost what with every

demographic out there except for white men. and i've been saying for 20 years that we've got to do a better job with nontraditional constituencies. >> reverend, how can the republican party do better with nontraditional constituencies? >> by telling the truth of who they've been historically. the truth of the matter is this and mr. reid did in fact say the president did well through the south. but the truth of the matter is this -- take away this president's skin color and take away the race card that is played so often with this president and there's really no reason for black people to vote for him or latinos in that frame as well. because when you look at the unemployment rate among those two demographics, when you look at the poverty rate among young white females, there is no reason for anybody to have real elected this president in those

demographics, accepts f demographics, except for the emotional issue of race. this is what we say in our movie, the democrat party, the progressive liberals, have been very successful in co opting the emotional issues of the day. the truth of the matter is those very issues have led the same group of people who voted this president and voted for him religiously into a mindset and to a culture of bondage. >> mayor reid, i want to give you the last word. >> i think that those are consistent with mitt romney's belief. but the fact of the matter is president obama's never played the race card and the republicans invented the race card with their southern strategy. folks voted for their interests. it wasn't because of the president's race. and it really was across the board. so the reverend can continue to stay on this path. it's the path to defeat. it's the path that won't involve

more support for minorities and republicans will continue to lose and their candidate will be on vacation with mitt romney. >> gentlemen, we have to leave it there for now. i really appreciate your time. thank you. >> we do have an update on a developing story that we've been covering through this story. republican congressman tim scott releasing a statement thanks senator tim demint for his service to the nation. scott will be the 113th. considered as a replacement for demint.om le, their very first word was... [ to the tune of "lullaby and good night" ] ♪ af-lac ♪ aflac [ male announcer ] find out more at... [ duck ] aflac! [ male announcer ] ...forbusiness.com. [ yawning sound ]

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the vice president makes the record books and that's no mularkey. >> this is a bunch of stuff. here's the deal. >> what does that mean, a bunch of stuff? >> it's irish. >> it is. we irish call it malarkey. >> thanks for the translation. >> i heard that word growing up.

that word malarkey set a record in online look-ups in 24-hour period. it did say the search for malarkey spiked by 3,000%. from malarkey to lunacy, the house voted yesterday on a bill that removes the word lunatic from federal law. the bill passed by a vote of 397-1. the term lunacy is considered offensive and outdated. who was the one lone holdout and why? congressman gomer, republican from texas. he says the word has application around washington, d.c., and he does have a point. so if the fiscal cliff talks were happening in texas, there would be lots of talk of the two-step, but they are not. former president clinton describing the negotiations as a different kind of dance. it's a kabuki dance, sort of like two dogs that meet each other through a piece of meat. sniffing each other out.

they're moving towards a deal. that's what's going on. clinton is optimistic a deal will be reached. ♪ >> and start using those precious social media skills -- >> it's all about gangnam style for former senator alan simpson. that's how he's trying to get his message out about the fiscal cliff. he explained why this morning on "today". take a look. >> i thought the guy said pretending you're riding a horse and lassoing steer. let me tell you, you have to reach young people. >> it's hard to read when you're coughing and laughing all at the same time. it's problematic, people. so, from alan simpson to the animated simpsons, mr. montgomery burns explains the fiscal cliff. >> think of the even xhooe econd the ri as a car. if you don't give the rich man money he'll drive you over the cliff, it's common sense. >> that's going to wrap things

up for me. i'll see you tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. eastern time. congresswoman maxine waters will be here, marcia blackburn, jared bernstein and ron insana. ben labolt and hogan gidley. "now with alex wagner" comes your way next. ready bored. hmm, we need a new game. ♪ that'll save the day. ♪ so will bounty select-a-size. it's the smaller powerful sheet. the only one with trap + lock technology. look! one select-a-size sheet of bounty is 50% more absorbent than a full size sheet of the leading ordinary brand. use less. with the small but powerful picker upper, bounty select-a-size.

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about any conditions, such as kidney, liver or bleeding problems. ready to change your routine? ask your doctor about once-a-day xarelto®. for more information including cost support options, call 1-888-xarelto or visit goxarelto.com. can either party fashion a kara beaner large enough to hoist the country from the fiscal cliff? it's thursday, december 6th, and this is "now." joining me today the man with the golden throat, georgetown university professor and msnbc contributor michael eric dyson. here from "time" magazine, and